The warm fuzzy holiday we celebrated on Thursday with huge meals and family gatherings has a far more unseemly history than appears. Thanksgiving, as we know it, was declared by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 as a way of easing tensions between the north and the south during the Civil War. The year before Lincoln’s declaration there was a massacre of Dakota-Sioux tribal members.
The first Thanksgiving is claimed by various people in various places, but was not (as we have been taught) celebrated the first year the settlers arrived in what they called the New World, which is Plymouth Massachusetts.
There are some shreds of truth in narrative we have constructed to make ourselves feel better. There was a three day feast in Plymouth at some point. It did celebrate the harvest. There is no evidence the Wampanoag Native Americans were invited. A few tribal members showed up when they heard gunfire. It was part of the celebration, and after deliberation, they decided to stay.
In the pilgrim’s first encounter with the Wampanoags they stole from the tribe’s winter provisions. It wasn’t until later that tribal leader Ousamequin form an alliance between the pilgrims and the Wampanoags. It was not, however, about harmony and making nice. In fact, by the time the alliance was made the Wampanoags had been decimated by diseases brought by the pilgrims from Europe. The alliance was to assure the survival of the remaining Wampanoags.
After the first harvest celebration there was a bloody war between the colonizers and the Native peoples (beyond the Wampanoag tribe). In general, the colonizers showed their appreciation to the Natives by stealing their land, imprisoning their leaders and selling tribal members into slavery in the West Indies. Not long after that bloody war came the Pequot massacre of 1636 and the beheading of Wampanoag leader Metacom.
Rather than the wholesome family, faith and friends narrative that attends this holiday, it is a story of genocide, tribal decimation and erasure of Native American culture from American history.
Native Americans mark Thanksgiving as National Day of Mourning. It has been marked in Plymouth Massachusetts since 1970. Participants in National Day of Mourning have, in this remembrance, celebrated their ancestors and honored their struggle to survive. Part of their mission is to educate Americans about the history of Thanksgiving. It is organized by United American Indians of New England.
If you are looking for a more honest way to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, visit firstnations.org. They offer a comprehensive reading list for all ages. Look for films like, Our Spirits don’t Speak English, Dreamkeeper, Imprint or The Cherokee Word for Water.
Correcting the false narrative of history is step one in a more just, honest and faithful understanding of Native American culture, pain and eradication from the American narrative. It is time we teach history honestly.
The Irreverent Reverend 